Cognitive-behavioral group treatment of adolescent depression: Prediction of outcome

doi:10.1016/S0005-7894(05)80162-5

Behavior Therapy

Volume 23, Issue 3, Summer 1992, Pages 341-354

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(05)80162-5 Get rights and content

This paper attempts to identify variables which distinguish depressed adolescents who were recovered versus not recovered at post treatment in a controlled outcome study. Fifty-nine adolescents meeting Research Diagnostic Criteria for major and/or intermittent depression were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) a cognitive-behavioral, psycho-educational treatment group for adolescents (n=21); (b) an identical protocol for adolescents, but with their parents enrolled in a separate parent group (n=19); and (c) a waitlist control condition (n=19). Thirty-seven of the 40 actively treated subjects were retained for prediction analyses examining treatment recovery via two assessment methods: (a) a discriminant function analysis predicting membership in KSADS/RDC diagnosis-based Recovered (n=16) and Not Recovered (n=21) groups; and (b) a hierarchical block regression analysis predicting residual pre-to-post change on the Beck Depression Inventory. Because of the small sample, potential predictor variables were limited to those which demonstrated significant univariate correlations with the respective outcome variables. Recovery in the discriminant function analysis was associated with lower intake levels on the BDI, lower intake state anxiety, higher enjoyment and frequency of pleasant activities, and more rational thoughts on the Subjective Probability Questionnaire. The overall canonical correlation was .6277. In the hierarchical block regression analysis predicting residual BDI scores, better outcome was associated with a greater number of past psychiatric diagnoses, parent involvement in treatment, and younger age at onset of first depressive episode. The overall regression solution yielded a multiple R=.842. The discussion focuses on the continuity between the current findings and results obtained from similar studies conducted with depressed adults, as well as the degree to which the observed results are consistent with the “capitalization” model of depression therapy outcome.

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^†: This investigation was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH41278) made to Dr. Peter Lewinsohn.

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Cognitive-behavioral group treatment of adolescent depression: Prediction of outcome†

Behavior Research & Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Clinical Psychology Review

Manual for the child behavior checklist

Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity

Psychological Bulletin

Functional family therapy

Cognitive therapy of depression

An inventory for measuring depression

Archives of General Psychiatry

Psychotherapy research in depression: An overview

Social-environmental factors in unipolar depression: Comparisons of depressed patients and nondepressed controls

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Psychosocial processes of remission in unipolar depression: Comparing depressed patients with matched community controls

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Psychosocial stressors, coping, and depression

Life stressors and social resources affect posttreatment outcomes among depressed patients

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Social origins of depression

An organizational approach to childhood depression

The Coping With Depression Course: A group psychoeducational intervention for unipolar depression

Behaviour Change

Instructor's manual for the Adolescent Coping with Depression Course

Compensatory effects in group cognitive-behavioral treatment of depressed adolescents

Cognitive factors and classification issues in adolescent depression

Journal of Youth and Adolescence

Aptitudes and instructional methods

National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program: General effectiveness of treatments

Archives of General Psychiatry

Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change

Longitudinal followup of unipolar depressives: An investigation of predictors of relapse

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Marital and family treatment of depression

The Perceived Competence Scale for Children

Child Development

Group treatment of depression: Individual predictors of outcome

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology